Program Development And Quality Director

ROLE PURPOSE: The Director of Programme Development and Quality (PDQ) is an exciting and challenging leadership role, with responsibility for setting the strategic direction of Save the Children Lebanon’s programmes and ensuring programme quality in line with our child rights mandate. The PDQ Director reports directly to the Country Director, and is a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) who are accountable for leadership of the country programme.   The PDQ Director is responsible for managing a team of technical advisors who provide expertise in Save the Children’s core sectors and guiding the team’s work in: strategic planning; programme development; programme quality; technical support to implementation; representation and advocacy. The PDQ Director also leads Save the Children’s work in Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), supported by a MEAL technical advisor.   The post-holder will be a senior manager with proven skills in strategic planning, leadership and external representation and with a technical background in one or more of Save the Children’s thematic sectors. The post-holder will need to demonstrate significant international experience leading complex humanitarian and development programming and a proven track record of successfully mobilising funding and operating within humanitarian coordination structures. KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:   Strategic planning and leadership: Provide overall strategic leadership and direction to Save the Children Lebanon’s programming. Ensure joined up strategic planning across core sectors with a focus on programme integration and strengthening multi-sectoral approaches. Lead and collaborate on the development of country annual plans, area plans, sector strategies and other programme planning processes. Provide strategic guidance to technical advisors in the development of planning, results frameworks and master budgets in core sectors with reference to contextual developments and inter-agency coordination mechanisms. Ensure evidence-based programming through setting organisational agenda for research and assessments. Maintain oversight of progress against sector strategies in coordination with technical advisors and ensure accountability to SMT.     Programme quality and standards: Ensure effective quality assurance of Save the Children Lebanon’s programming and compliance with Save the Children’s Quality Framework and global humanitarian standards. Provide strategic direction to development of contextualised quality indicators to better support tracking of quality and outcome monitoring. Provide leadership to research and evaluation strategies for new programming in coordination with technical advisors. Oversee the development of technical capacity building plans for staff, working with technical advisors and DCD Ops/DPO to prioritise training needs and resource these appropriately. Ensure internal lesson learning and experience sharing across Save the Children Lebanon’s programmes takes place and is integrated into programme planning. Oversee knowledge sharing across teams, and ensure that monitoring and evaluation results are understood and used to improve programmes. Ensure appropriate knowledge management systems are in place to support programme quality.   Programme development and resource mobilisation: Provide active leadership in Save the Children’s relationships with key donors. Ensure clear identification of fundraising needs and priorities. Provide strategic decision making for new funding opportunities in alignment with country and sector strategic priorities. Oversee technical development of proposals to ensure quality programme design and appropriate levels of rigour in development of technical approaches. Support development of concept notes for pilot activities. Provide leadership to new approaches enhancing programme integration.   Support to programme implementation: Ensure sufficient technical support in place across the team to support programme implementation to minimum quality standards, including bringing in surge capacity and head office technical support where required. Define roles and responsibilities of PDQ team in relation to field level implementation and ensure expectations for technical support are met. Provide technical support and oversight to technical advisors and field teams in delivering programming Work closely with the Programme Operations department to ensure operational decisions are informed by programme quality requirements and minimum standards. Ensure that the Lebanon country office is able to deliver on programme reporting requirements in a timely manner and with high quality information, including internal reporting on SCI global indicators. Conduct regular field monitoring visits and provide structured feedback and recommendations to field teams and relevant technical advisors / managers. In coordination with Programme Operations, ensure appropriate levels of technical assistance and capacity building is provided to partners.   Organizational Learning: Take the initiative in documenting lessons learnt, best practice and case studies to shape in-country strategies and program approaches, and contribute to broader sector learning. Lead on organizational level program policy, innovation, learning or representation initiatives in consultation with SC Member advisory teams.   Advocacy and representation: Represent Save the Children in key forums both in Lebanon and more widely as appropriate. Represent Save the Children with UN, donors, government and other INGOs. Help shape broader sector strategies through influence of and leadership within inter-agency coordination forums, ensuring the specific needs of children are being addressed.  Provide oversight to messaging related to programme approach in coordination with the Media, Advocacy and Communications team. Ensure sector-specific messaging is produced by PDQ technical advisors and informed by evidence. Pro-actively identify advocacy opportunities, case studies and research opportunities which link with wider organizational strategic objectives, and turn these into action.     Line and team management: Ensure clear team structure and recruitment of staff, with focus on nationalisation of technical positions where feasible. Define expectations and provide appropriate one to one support to direct reports and others within the PDQ team. Manage the performance of direct reports using Save the Children performance management policies and procedures as well as through appropriate coaching, mentoring, training and development. Ensure the recruitment, training and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff in relation to core PDQ related competencies. Oversee the delivery of capacity building plans to develop the requisite technical competencies in program staff.     General: Comply with Save the Children policies and practice with respect to child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies and procedures.   QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE   Essential:   Masters in social sciences, international development or a related discipline, or undergraduate degree and 5 years relevant experience. Minimum 7 years of international experience in humanitarian and development work including experience directing and implementing programmes for children in both emergency and development contexts. Proven ability and understanding in Rights Based Programming Recognized leadership role in relevant technical areas at both field and country level. Experience leading and managing diverse teams with multiple direct reports. Experience in leading strategy and proposal development including logical frameworks. Proven skills in resource management, training, capacity building, coaching, and mentoring. Proven experience raising funds and developing proposals for programmes in excess of $5 million. Strong report writing skills, including experience in writing funding proposals and donor reports. Experience in developing and working with M&E tools. Proven representation and advocacy skills and the credibility to represent Save the Children at all levels. Good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate and negotiate clearly and effectively at all levels, taking into account cultural and language difficulties. Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Demonstrable knowledge of key areas of programme operations, logistics and grant management relevant to delivering quality programmes. Flexibility and willingness to change work practices and hours, and capability to work in insecure environment. Fluency in written and spoken English. Commitment  to  and  understanding of Save the  Children’s  aims,  values  and principles  including rights-based approaches   Desirable:   Experience leading inter-agency coordination forums Understanding of Child Rights Previous work experience in Lebanon or other areas in the Middle East Previous work experience in response to the Syrian crisis Spoken and/or written Arabic